If you get an error like “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /home/(site name)/public_html/administrator/components/com_jaggyblog/views/cpanel/view.html.php on line 1”. This usually means that you did a site transfer and one or more JaggyBlog files got corrupted. Please re-download and reinstall the component and any modules to resolve the issue.

Upgrading from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3

The main point to be aware of when updating to Joomla 3 is that JaggyBlog’s blog posts are merely articles stored in Joomla, so these are not lost on upgrade, as long as the required Joomla database tables are transferred across.

The only JaggyBlog database tables that need to be transferred are the ones that store the blog tags and comments posted, unless of course you are using another form of comment submission like Facebook or JComments.

Apart from this, as long as the required Joomla data is exported and imported correctly, the only task needed to get JaggyBlog functioning again is to make sure you un-install the old JaggyBlog, install the latest version of JaggyBlog, and set it up again via its configuration screen. Please note: JaggyBlog table data should be imported after JaggyBlog is installed so that it’s using the latest table structures.

Changing the language of JaggyBlog’s text.

Edit the following file via FTP: “/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_jaggyblog.ini”. This is the language file that stores all of the editable text used within the frontend of the JaggyBlog component.

Error saving configuration file
If no settings save in JaggyBlog’s admin configuration screen, this is likely to be down to the database table structure for JaggyBlog being out of date. This can happen if you install a new version of JaggyBlog over an existing version and the update doesn’t fully complete.

To resolve this, uninstall JaggyBlog and delete the database table that JaggyBlog uses called “*_jaggyblog_config”. After this, install JaggyBlog again. Don’t worry, you won’t lose any blog posts, comments or tags etc. You will just have to set-up JaggyBlogs configuration screen again.

Component – Comments

Captcha image is not displaying

If you enabled captcha but the image is not displaying, this usually means that JaggyBlog does not have enough file permissions to use the PHP file that generates the image via “/components/com_jaggyblog/assets/libraries/captcha/index.php”. Make sure this file has group/owner permissions via FTP to read and execute. If this doesn’t work, this means that your web server does not have the “GD image library” server module enabled, which lets PHP dynamically generate images. This means that you will need to contact your webhost and enquire about enabling it. Also mention the URL for the file above, as they may be able to help you specifically with getting that file to work.

Comments not submitting correctly

If after posting a comment, the comment area goes blank or the comment doesn’t submit, it is likely to be because of one of the following reasons:

1) The main reason why posting comments might not work is due to the security on your web-host. Sometimes a software firewall called “mod security” is installed that stops certain web functionality from working. You may need to contact your web-host and send them the following error message so they can enable the file mentioned:

2) The second reason why comments might not work is because your site template is using the Jquery JavaScript framework and is stopping Mootools from loading to avoid any possible conflicts. You can tell if this is the case by the error “json.decode or configArray undefined” appearing when posting a comment while using a debugger tool. Another way to tell is by viewing the HTML code of the page you’re on and seeing if mootools.js is being included.

Note: If the above 2 options do not work satisfactorily, it is recommended that the JComments or Komento plugin for JaggyBlog is used instead (see plugins here). This will allow you to install their component (JComments / Komento) and use their comment system instead.

Component – Publishing

Embedding video into blog posts

JaggyBlog supports all the same plugins that normal articles do in Joomla, so using a plugin like All Videos will work in blog posts.

Adding a Read More link

While creating or editing a blog post in the front or backend. Underneath the editor should be a “read more” button. This allows you to insert a line that sets where the blog post should be cut off and where a “read more” link appears. This link can then be clicked to access the full content of the blog post.

New blog posts are not appearing

When creating and posting a new blog post using JaggyBlog, sometimes it may not appear after clicking that save button. Most of the time this is caused by the server time zone in Joomla’s Global Configuration being set incorrectly.

You can check to see if this is the case by using the Article Manager and finding the article/blog post that isn’t appearing. Open the blog post and see if the time in its “Created Date” is different to the time set in “Start Publishing”. If it is different, this means that the time zone is set incorrectly. To know what to set the time zone to, see how many hours difference there is between the two times and update the time zone accordingly. For example, if the “Start Publishing” time is 6 hours ahead, then update the time zone to be in a city that is 6 hours ahead of the city currently set.

Adding a Read More link

While creating or editing a blog post in the front or backend. Underneath the editor should be a “read more” button. This allows you to insert a line that sets where the blog post should be cut off and where a “read more” link appears. This link can then be clicked to access the full content of the blog post.

Allowing certain content on the blog listing page

Certain HTML code is purposely filtered so it doesn’t display on the blog listing page. This is to keep the layout consistent. If you wish for certain HTML elements to display however, such as embedded Youtube videos, you will need to edit the following file via FTP:

“/components/com_jaggyblog/models/jaggyblog.php”

On line 278 in that file is a list of HTML tags that are allowed to be displayed on the blog listing page. Add<iframe>
to the list and Youtube videos will then display on the blog listing page.

Plugin – Search

JaggyBlog posts are appearing twice in the search results

While using Joomla’s search module with JaggyBlog’s search plugin, if you run a search that displays a JaggyBlog post twice, this is because Joomla as a default returns the “com_content” based articles and the “com_jaggyblog” based articles, which duplicates the results it displays.

To stop this from happening, the “com_content” search plugin needs to be updated to tell it not to search for “com_jaggyblog” based articles, leaving it to the JaggyBlog search plugin to display them. Copy and paste the code from the file here (search-plugin-01.txt) and over-write all the code with it in your website file at “/plugins/search/content/content.php”.

Templates

How do I make my own JaggyBlog template?

In most cases you should not need to customise the look of JaggyBlog because it’s Universal template is designed to inherit the styling from whatever site template you have installed. If you do wish to customise how it looks however, you will need basic knowledge of CSS and PHP. Customising a template is done using Joomla’s method called “template override“.

To help you do this, download the pre-made template override files for JaggyBlog (jaggyblog_template_override.zip). Once downloaded, extract the folder to the site location:

“/templates/(name of site template you’re using)/html/”

Once extracted, you should have the folder structure:

“/templates/(name of site template you’re using)/html/com_jaggyblog/jaggyblog/”

Inside the last folder of that location, you should have 7 php files, each representing a layout in JaggyBlog for you to edit (such as default.php). Now this is done, go into JaggyBlog’s Configuration Screen and save the blog template option called “Custom”.

With this done, you can now edit any of the php files to what layout you want. You can also style any of these layouts by using the style-sheet in the template override folder at:

“/templates/(name of site template you’re using)/html/com_jaggyblog/jaggyblog/css/custom.css”.

Miscellaneous

How are blog posts stored?

Blog posts in JaggyBlog are stored as normal articles in Joomla, within the category assigned to JaggyBlog. JaggyBlog then uses the category assigned to show all of these articles as blog posts. This is ideal when transferring a Joomla website or updating it. This also allows blog posts to be created and edited via JaggyBlog or Joomla’s own article manager.

How do I auto-publish blog posts to Facebook/Twitter?

As with any blog, JaggyBlog provides an RSS feed which can be obtained by enabling the RSS icon in JaggyBlog’s configuration screen. With the URL of an RSS feed you can use a free service such as www.twitterfeed.com. Services such as these will use your RSS feed to automatically send new blog posts to sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Facebook also has many apps you can add to do it as well, such as https://www.facebook.com/appcenter/rssgraffiti.

RSS feeds are also available for all comments made. To get this RSS feed, simply use your Internet browser while on the main JaggyBlog page. For example, in Firefox go to “Bookmarks” -> “Subscribe to this page”, and there will be two RSS feeds available, one for the blog posts and one for the comments.

Is there an evaluation copy of JaggyBlog to try?

Unfortunately no. Due to the open source nature of JaggyBlog, it would be easy for those with technical knowledge to use an evaluation copy without purchasing a license. An evaluation copy with limited features was considered, though this would not reflect the full capability of JaggyBlog to potential customers. Please view the screen-shots, watch the videos and view the client demos to make an informed decision over whether JaggyBlog is right for you.

Is a refund possible?
A refund is available if evidence or reasoning is provided that JaggyBlog does not work as expected or does not function with your website.

Changing where it says “jaggyblog” in the URL
When viewing JaggyBlog after installation, its URL should look like this “http://www.rossstevens.co.uk/jaggyblog/”. If you want the URL to show something other than “jaggyblog” go into the Menu Manager in Joomla’s admin and click on the menu item for JaggyBlog. Here you should see an input field labelled “Alias”. This determines what the URL is for JaggyBlog. Most users simply change this to “blog” so the URL above would now be “http://www.rossstevens.co.uk/blog/”.

If the URL still doesn’t change after updating the alias, please ensure you have caching off in Joomla’s Global Configuration. Also, you may have an SEO component installed that may be forcing what the URL is. Another possibility is that you have a menu item pointing to JaggyBlog that is unpublished or has been trashed and JaggyBlog is still using it’s alias. To stop this, simply delete any unpublished menu items that point to JaggyBlog.

Upgrading/Uninstalling JaggyBlog
To use the latest version of JaggyBlog, simply use the download link in the original order email you recieved. This will always point to the latest version available. Once the latest version is downloaded, make sure to uninstall the existing version first to avoid any conflicts.

Do not worry about losing any data like tags and blog posts when uninstalling as these are kept intact. Only code files are removed.